Friday, January 18, 2013

EU politics: speech cancelled

Some say postponed. Others say cancelled. I suppose it amounts to the same thing. The speech isn't going ahead, and there's no new date been announced.None of us could have expected this, and there will be dark mutterings about Mr Cameron's motives.

As the legacy media catches up with this development, public opinion is divided. One the one hand, we see this comment:

Sad and distressing though the hostage situation in Algeria is it is no reason for the person supposedly leading this country to postpone a major speech - this is Cameron using it as an excuse to prevaricate. When is the next "ideal" time for this speech? He doesn't know what he is doing - can't make his mind up how to present what he wants in a way that is acceptable and has used this to buy time. I am really sorry for the poor people and their families who will be suffering but the work of government goes on.

At the other extreme, we see:

Brits could be being murdered all over the globe, yet the Europhobes believe that the PM should be giving a speech concerning their obsession is more important. What will they do tomorrow night when they have nothing to rant and rave about? That is their only concern - not the lives of Brits.

For the moment, the situation in Algeria calls for Mr Cameron's attention, even though we have no assets in place and there is nothing specifically for the prime minister to do, other than manage expectations and handle the government publicity.

One has to say that, had Mr Cameron not decided to showboat and planned to speak in London instead of Amsterdam, he could perhaps have set aside the time to speak to us on the EU. And there will be more than a few suggesting the Mr Cameron is more than a little bit relieved to have something else dominating the news agenda.

In that, everything has suddenly changed. But none of the underlying issues have changed. Brutal though the Algerian siege is, in the grander scheme of things it is a relatively minor event, compared say, with the Battle of el Alamein - the toll of death and injury representing less than a week's carnage on our own roads. And, on the EU front, No 10 is as impenetrable as ever. Mr Cameron is still surrounded by the ignorant and the agenda seekers. The issues are still being misrepresented.

Despite that, as a result of the delay, we still might see a different speech. We don't know. We are in uncharted territory. It's time for a rethink, to retrench, and to watch for further developments.